ToD nous parle de Starcraft 2 !

Esportsfrance.com : How did your first SC2 game go? Who did you play against?
Yoan "ToD" Merlo : It was a 2v2 with Nilknarf versus Creo & Kiwikaki, we were happy to be able to test the game, so we intended to develop quite a bit to take a look at the new units but we got rushed and and lost early on in the game...!

What can you emphasize in this first contact, compared to W3 and BW?
I found the new units quite interesting, the way each of them has a counter, and also the gameplay changed quite a lot.

Which unit were you the most amazed by?
The Stalkers I think, the cooldown is really short, and they teleport near instantly, and are quite fast to mass, quite like Dragoons, hence in all our games, there were quite a lot of them in action. The Immortals, too, cause they practically feel nothing when attacked by a tank.. I wanted to play oldschool, with 2 factories in my first games and I took a good beating against the Immortals. At one time we had the middle of a map under control with a mass tank with Nilk, and then a bunch of Immortals arrived and slaughtered everything and Nilk made me laugh when he said "those fucking immortals".

The Thor

Terran side, we could see some huge robots on the screenshots, what are they? Hmm "Thors" I suppose, I don't know much myself... Yesterday when I was playing, someone hinted me to make that building "Thor", which I did, and when it was finished, I saw this big robot stand up with his two big guns. I was quite surprised, it seemed powerful, except versus tanks. The Viking seems quite "able" to speak the least (a bit like the dryad), is it countered easily? I didn't use it much, I didn't like its design so I didn't build much of them while playing.

Is the "hard counter" system already working? Do you really have to mix a lot your units?
Yes you have to mix to avoid being completely countered.

In your opinion, are Protoss the new Night Elves?
It may be so, but Blizzard didn't even ship the game...So you can't really tell yet, the gameplay might change quite a lot before it ships. But yesterday after like 20 games it seemed quite clear that Protoss was the easiest race to play. Expand with 7 gateways while massing Stalkers to harass, then Zealots, Dark Templars, Archons etc... While Terran seems quite hard to play, there's a whole bunch of new buildings. The race must be super-strong, but needs a lot of training, like Human.

Can you tell us a bit more on how the Mothership works? Hmmm I wasn't able to use it much, but it seems they already removed the famous "black hole" cause it was too powerful. We made quite an epic fight where I gathered 20 Carriers with a Mothership supporting them, and I think it's a good "support" unit. Its two spells can help to win fight when used with skill. Is there a Terran equivalent? No, Terrans changed a lot, too, actually, there is no more Academy, but an add-on to build on the Barracks, like the Factory, and a new upgrade on Marines granting them 15 more health points.

Le Mothership

Gameplay wise, what are the strong points compared to W3 and BW? Were you surprised by some new features?
The fact that you can group seven barracks, or have more than 30 units on the same key. There's no need anymore to use all the groups from 1 to 10, the game is more user friendly for everybody.

In StarCraft being able to handle a lot of different groups was a way to show your talent, can't it make the game less technical to play?
That could be possible, yes.

Do you intend on playing Terran when starCraft 2 will launch or do you intend on switching to another?
I don't know, time will tell.

Your advice on SC2? Will it reunite the W3 and BW communities?
It definitely has the potential, but it depends mostly on the tournament orgas. In my opinion, many players always dreamed to be on top but never had the occasion on SC/BW or W3 and regret that, and I think they'll try to become pro with SC2

Any last words? Did you like it?
Try the game when it ships, cause it will really be most interesting (it already is when it's only a beta)

/thanks to NoiR for English version.